New Zealand: Better planning needed in Japan coastal rebuild

Chris Gomez, a University of Canterbury lecturer and tsunami researcher, blamed assembly areas at schools located by the coast, ill-conceived protection walls, inadequate evacuation plans leaving out the ageing population, and a feeling of over-confidence in the engineered structures to protect coastal cities, for being some of the reasons for 20,000 people perishing in last year’s Japanese tsunami. In Voxy, he called for better city planning and invited New Zealand to learn lessons from the events in Japan in order to avoid being confronted with similar problems.